Ridley Scott in Talks to Direct ‘The Merlin Saga for Disney

Filmmaker Ridley Scott has entered negotiations with Disney bosses to lead The Merlin Saga.

The new project is based on American author T.A. Barron’s books of the same name about the origin story of the mythical wizard who mentored literary character King Arthur.

Sources tell Variety there are three possible movie deals on the table for Scott related to the magical medieval knight story, with insiders claiming he met with Disney executives to discuss two Merlin Saga films, as well as the company’s forthcoming Sword in the Stone live-action remake.

In addition to directing the project, Ridley would produce The Merlin Saga under his Scott Free production company banner with colleague Gil Netter from a script by writer Philippa Boyens.

News of the Merlin discussions arrives just weeks after the director released his new biographical thriller All the Money in the World. The film managed to reach cinemas just three days late – on Christmas Day (25Dec17) – after Ridley was forced to reshoot scenes.

He had to rework the film with Christopher Plummer replacing Kevin Spacey as billionaire J. Paul Getty after The Usual Suspects star was accused of sexual harassment and misconduct in November (17).

Scott managed to gather his cast and crew and the reshoots were crammed in at the last minute at the end of the month, after production originally concluded in August.

Scott is already working on the sequel to his other 2017 feature, Alien: Covenant, and he is also attached to lead World War II drama Battle of Britain.